MIAMI, United States. – The British magazine ArtReview chose the San Isidro Movement (MSI) and the 27N group as one of the most influential movements of 2022.
The publication ranked the MSI and the 27N at 68th place in a list where the film and television director Steve McQueen, the philosopher Judith Butler and the artivist Ai Weiwei, among many others, also appear.
The review dedicated to both groups highlights how several Cuban artists have remained influential despite being imprisoned or having had to go into exile.
“Power takes strange forms and, on its face, imprisonment and exile should leave an individual powerless,” the publication states. “The repression at the hands of the State of Cuban artists like Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Hamlet Lavastida has catalyzed collective action,” she adds.
“When in 2018 the authorities in Havana announced a new law aimed at silencing artists, Decree 349, Alcántara became the most visible figure of the San Isidro Movement, which bears the name of a neighborhood in the city. For this reason he has been persecuted on several occasions, and having been on a hunger strike in prison without a trial, this year he was sentenced to five years in prison for the crime of ‘insulting the national symbols,'” he lamented. ArtReview.
Likewise, the publication recalled that the Prosecutor’s Office had sentenced Otero Alcántara for creating a series of works with the national flag.
“Although Alcántara is one of the more than 700 people currently imprisoned for his protests, Hamlet Lavastida, a member of the 27N collective, is one of the many more who now live outside the country,” the British magazine also highlighted.
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